As the financial services industry slowly but steadily becomes more tech-savvy and technology-enabled, including the adoption of online models for the delivery and implementation financial advice, the line of where human financial advice ends and "robo" automation begins is becoming increasingly blurry... ultimately the key distinction is not actually about being online at all, but about how the industry itself is crafted and delivered: in the end, does the advice the client gets come from a human, or a (human-designed) computer algorithm?

http://www.kitces.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-a-robo-advisor-and-getting-online-financial-advice/